


SUGGESTIONS 



AS TO THE 




^ 



ap 




I flf %imm ^lakrg, 



ADDRESSED TO 



THE MEMBERS AND FRIENDS 



THE CHUJiCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM. 



BY 



WM. H. HOLCOMBE, M.D. 



MASOxV BROTHERS, 5 & 7 MERCER STREET. 



1861. 



SUGGESTIONS 



AS TO TUB 



ry> * ♦ 




flf %kkim ^laberg, 



ADDRESSED TO 



THE MEMBERS AND FRIENDS 



THE CHUUCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM. 




BY 



WM. H. HOLCOMBE, M.D. 



^ |[^to |0rli: 

MASON BROTHERS, 5 & 7 MERCER STREET. 

18 Gl. 






ADVEETISEMENT. 



That the following Essay may not be condemned simply 
because it is not understood, it is addressed "To the Mem- 
bers AND Friends of the Church of the New Jerusalem," or 
to all who read and appreciate the theological writings of 
Emanuel Swedenborg. To such it is only necessary to say, 
that the Essay is an attempt to vmfold, in some degree, the 
great principle so constantly set forth and illustrated in the 
writings of Swedenborg, viz., That there are j^rofound differences 
in the interior life, or spiritual constitution, of different races of 
men, which give rise to a necessity for the use of widely different 
means for their regeneration. 

The writer is aware that every idea in the following Essay 
needs further illustration and amplification. But as it is, he 
thinks it will interest the brethren, by the far-reaching char- 
acter of its views. He does not dare to offer them as truth, 
but simply as his lioncst conviction of what the truth is. He 
will be satisfied if they elicit light from others, or cultivate 
the spirit of charity. 



THE 



SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 



What a puzzle is man upon this 
planet to the Christian philosopher ! 
What varieties of form, color, habits, 
and capacities ! What differences 
in government, in religion, in lan- 
guage, in private and public manners 
and customs 1 All degrees and 
shades of white, black, yellow, and 
red ! Some progressing, some retro- 
grading, — the most of them perfectly' 
stagnant as to thought and life ! Is 
there no thread to this labyrinth of 
wonders — no key to these mysteries ? 
It is commonly supposed that hu- 
man nature is, and always has been, 
the same everywhere — that all men 
are fundamentally organized alike, 
have similar affections and under- 
standings ; and think and will in the 
same manner under analogous or 
identical circumstances. The same 
influences, it is supposed, would pro- 
duce about the same results every- 
where, and at all times. Consequent- 
ly it is argued tliat all men are 
created equal, and ultimately de- 
signed for our own type of civiliza- 
tion, which it is their right to acquire, 
and their duty to achieve. 

Is this so ? Is this crude and 
grossly material way of looking at 
human nature satisfactory ? Does it 
explain any thing ? Why are some 
men white and some black, some 
civilized and some heathen, some 
progressive and some hopelessly tor- 
pid ? How came the ancient civiliza- 
tions to perish, and in what and why 
did they differ from our modern sys- 
tems ? Why does the Indian become 
extinct, and why is the African en- 
slaved ? These and a thousand simi- 



lar questions can never be answered 
by that philosophy, which supposes 
that men are always equal and simi- 
lar, and that the race has been ever 
gradually developing upward, under 
favoring natural influences, from 
barbarism into civilization and Chris- 
tianity. 

We have at last, by the mercy of 
God, and the instrumentality of Swe- 
denborg, a key to the spiritual phi- 
losophy of history. There is no true 
key to any thing but a spiritual key ; 
for the sphere of causes lies always 
in the spiritual world, and effects can 
never be understood by studying 
them only from their natural or ph3^s- 
ical side. We can form no true con- 
ception of the philosophy of history, 
or of the causes and uses of African 
Slavery, until we employ the key 
which Swedenborg has given us. 

The human mind contains three dis- 
tinct or discrete degrees of life and 
thought — the celestial, the sinntual, 
and the natural, and all these are in- 
serted, like casket within casket, 
into the sensual-corporeal sphere, an 
investment of time and space. We 
are connected by these discrete de- 
grees with the three great heavens 
and their opposite hells, and we go 
after death to that heaven or hell, 
corresponding to the degree which 
has been opened in us by our life in 
tlie world. So that wc bear within 
us fhe germs of three different natures 
— so different, that they do not under- 
stand, nor see, nor communicate with 
each other hereafter, save by corre- 
spondence. Human nature is not 
therefore the same everywhere, and 



The Spiritual Philosophy of 



at all times. Celestial, spiritual, and 
natural arc very different forms or 
forces, and call for very diflerent out- 
ward surrounding's. 

Swcdenborg says, that the first 
created men on this earth were of 
the Celestial type, had open intercourse 
with the celestial heavens, had direct 
influx from those heavens into the will 
or voluntar}' faculty, and consequent- 
ly felt, thought, and acted unlike any 
people who have existed since. They 
had interior respiration. The}' had 
no literature, no science, and no 
g'ovcriuncnts, in our modern sense of 
those terms. Nature was an open 
mirror to them ; they saw the divine 
meaning in the g-reatest of things 
and in the least ; they were child- 
like, wise, and happy. Those who 
became angels after death, now live 
in the third or highest heaven, and 
tlieir ruling love is love to the Lord. 

In process of time, and by means 
in this place unnecessary to detail, a 
great change came over the human 
race. Sin became general, and as 
correspondences were in power, that 
is, as interior changes were imme- 
diately represented by corresponding 
exterior clianges, its progress was 
awfully destructive. Swedenborg is 
not absolutely explicit upon this point 
— but a fair inference is, that a vast 
portion of the human race perished, 
or were suffocated by the closure of 
the interior respiration. In a few, 
the spiritual degree of the human 
mind was opened, and a new or spirit- 
ual church was instituted in con- 
nection with the second or spiritual 
heavens. Those in whom the spirit- 
ual degree could not be opened, and 
who still had some celestial "re- 
mains," left deeply stored away in 
tlieir souls, sank into the sensual- 
corporeal sphere, and have ever since 
lived a savage life, but little elevated 
above that of brutes. 

Now is it not pretty certain that 
the African races, our Indian aborig- 
ines, and perhaps other dark-skinned 
barbarians, are the descendants of 
these old antediluvians ? Sweden- 
burg plainly intimates as much i)f the 



African. He says that the African 
is of the celestial type. Grossly sen- 
sual and barbarian as he evidently is 
in his outward nature, the " remains" 
which He imbedded in his spiritual 
structure are of the celestial order. 
He is organically connected with the 
highest heaven and the deepest hell, 
as no other man or race of men upon 
this earth ever has been or can be. 
Proofs of his innate celestial genius 
are apparent in his ineradicable 
childishness, — his light-heartedness, 
simplicitj'-, credulity, and timidity, — 
in his passion for music and dancing, 
in his forgiving temper, and in that 
beautiful willingness to serve, which 
psychologicall_y distinguishes him 
from almost all other races. 

The man of the celestial heavens 
is pre-eminently majestic and beauti- 
ful — those of the opposite hells are 
the most hideous and dreadful of all 
the infernal monsters. The sins of 
the antediluvians were represented 
outwardly, and wroug'ht those ana- 
tomical changes, which are attributed 
by natural philosophers to climatic 
and other influences. The black skin, 
the woolly hair, the thick lips, the shal- 
low skull, the flat nose, the offensive 
smell, and other peculiarities ap- 
proaching the animal tribes, Avere 
imposed gradually on the antedilu- 
vian form, as correspondences to the 
brutalizing operations g-oingon with- 
in the soul. Here is the key to all 
the differences among men. The 
external v/as then made to corre- 
spond to the internal. It is only since 
the closure of the interior degrees of 
the human mind that a man can 
smile and be a villain, or that he can 
entertain wicked passions and not 
become lurid red, or immerse himself 
into false persuasions and not turn 
disgustingly black. The science of 
correspondences is the key to the 
anatomy, the languages, the history, 
customs, etc., of all races of men. 

I think the aborigines of America 
were also descendants of the celestial 
men of the first church. All perver- 
sions are of two kinds, — those of the 
will or the affections, and those of 



African Slavery. 



the understanding or the intellect. 
Perversions of charity would be rep- 
resented by a lurid red, copper or 
bronze color, and perversions of truth 
by a dark or black color. The sepa- 
ration of faitli and charity was the 
beginning of the end of the church. 
Is it not curious that the vast black 
and red races of the world lay for so 
many centuries hidden away in two 
I'emote, widely separated, and almost 
unknown continents ? Did it not 
represent the fact that the celestial 
element was closed to, or eliminated 
from, the psychological consciousness 
of the rest of the race ? Were not 
their discovery and exploration part 
of the steps preparatory to the de- 
scent of the New Jerusalem, and the 
establishment of the New Zion ? Per- 
haps we shall see presently why the 
Indian is exterminated, and the Afri- 
can enslaved. But before we specu- 
late on those points, we must pursue 
the thread of a general spiritual 
philosophy of history a little further. 
The spiritual church extended 
throughout the most of Asia. The 
influx from heaven then flowed direct- 
ly, not into the wills, but into the un- 
derstandings, of men. Thc}^ thought 
spiritually, and lived well, because 
they knew and loved truth. This 
spiritual condition of human nature, 
which was very unlike our natural 
mode of life, was also transitory. 
The downward course of man con- 
tinued ; he at last ceased to think 
spiritually, and became thoroughly 
natural. The apiritual degree was 
closed, and those in whom an order- 
ly natural plane could not be open- 
ed sank into the senHual-corporeal 
sphere. We may safely say, that 
the Hindoos, Chinese, Japanese, etc., 
are descendants of those people, who, 
from having been spiritual, became 
sensual-corporeal. They difter from 
Indians and negroes in being what 
we call semi-civilized — but they are 
totally stagnant and unprogressive. 
Their religion, their philosophy, their 
science, indeed every thing about 
them, is fossilized, petrified, crystal- 
lized. Why is it so ? 



All creation is by influx. All devel- 
opment, in whatever sphere, depends 
upon the direct stream of divine life 
flowing into the human soul, and 
representing itself outwardly in relig- 
ions, philosophies, arts, sciences, gov- 
ernments, etc. Now tlie African and 
the Asiatic have celestial and spiritual 
" remains" deeply imbedded in their 
sensual-corptoreal life. Bu t the celestial 
and spiritual planes of human life are 
closed. The influx into those races 
is not from interiors outward, and 
hence there is no living progress, no 
development, no civilization. The 
church is the medium of connection 
between the Lord and man, and even 
outward nature. That clmrch at 
pi'esent exists in the regenerate natu- 
ral plane of the white race — through 
which life flows outward and down- 
ward to all men and things. Asia 
and Africa can never awaken from 
their spell-bound sleep, until spiritual 
and celestial planes are reopened in 
the church. Missionaries can do 
nothing ; commercial intercourse can 
do nothing ; external forces can do 
nothing. Their " remains" must be 
vivified. 

The ancient nations which lived in 
the natural degree of life, connected 
by influx with the first or natural 
heavens, were, probably, the Egyp- 
tians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, 
Jews, etc. Of all these, the Jews 
were the most sensual and corpo- 
real, and the church established 
among them was, not a living, but a 
representative church. Men had 
now ceased to think spiritually, and 
became immersed in the senses. 
The knowledge of correspondences 
was lost, and idolatry and magic 
were prevalent from their perversion 
or abuse. The first, or natural 
heaven was rapidly closing to man, 
the nearest hell was opening wide, 
and the whole race would then have 
sunk into the mere sensual-corporeal, 
into the sphere of the life of beasts, 
and there perished, deprived of in- 
flux from heaven, but for a most 
astounding event 1 

Our Lord, the Divine Man, the 



6 



The Spiritual Philosophy of 



Creator of the Universe, the sole- 
subsisting' and self-subsisting, de- 
scended into this world in the human 
form, executed judgment in the 
world of spirits, cast out devils from 
the human race, conquered the hells 
and reduced them to temporary ex- 
ternal order, and penetrated all 
things, even the f^ensual-corporeal 
sphere, Avith his divine presence. 
He thereby saved the race from im- 
pending annihilation, and reopened 
the closed wa^'s to heaven. He is 
now the Mediator, the Way, and the 
Life. B}^ means of influx from him, 
our sensital-corporeal is again re- 
duced to order, and made obedient 
to the higlier faculties. We have a 
new natural, new science, new 
rationality, new life. Into this new 
natural, based on an orderly sensual- 
corporeal, a new spiritual and a new 
celestial may be inserted. The work 
of demolition was ended ; celestial, 
spiritual, natural, had all perished 
or been closed by evil. The Avork 
of reconstruction began ; natural, 
spjiritual, celestial, will all be opened 
again. " Praise the Lord, all ye his 
hosts !" 

The European races, and especial- 
ly the Teutonic branches, have been 
capable of receiving this new natural 
plane with the greatest success. 
Hence the church has been estab- 
lished with them, and hence their 
great civilization and power. Their 
civilization differs from the ancient 
forms in this. It has been devel- 
oped from below, or without, by ob- 
servation, experiment, and the culti- 
vation of tlie senses. The old forms 
were received from above by corre- 
spondences, and were successively 
crystallized or destroyed by the clos- 
ure of ment;il planes. Ancient em- 
pires, languages, etc., perished and 
are dead, because men successively 
ceased to live, think, and act in the 
spheres of life derived from the three 
distinct heavens, known as celestial, 
spiritual, and natural. There can be 
no retrograde or downward step in 
modern progress, because our Lord 
lives forever in his Divine Human- 



ity, and the heavens are pressing 
down to fill us with their life and 
power, as fast as recipient vessels 
can be prepared for their influx. 

We may form some faint idea of 
the vast and wonderful operations of 
Providence, when wo consider the 
fact that it has taken eighteen hun- 
dred years to prepare the natural 
plane of thought in the white race, 
for engrafting upon it the life of 
the spiritual and celestial churches. 
All the events of history', etc., dur- 
ing that period have been move- 
ments preparatory to the Second 
Advent, and the inauguration of 
spiritual and celestial life in the 
church. In the mean time, influx 
was through the natural plane of the 
white race. This influx, flowing 
into the sensual-corporeal spheres 
about it, caused the rise of Moham- 
medanism, the crusades, and all the 
historical events, discoveries, etc., 
which have brought Europe and 
Asia more closely together. In 
another direction, it caused the dis- 
covery and exploration of America 
and Africa, and the strange events 
which have transpired in the histor- 
ical lives of the Indian and the 
Negro. This is and must be • the 
New Church mode of looking at 
history. Effects are produced by 
spiritual causes, operating solely for 
spiritual ends. The ultimation of a 
celestial church, as in the most an- 
cient days, is the event to which all 
creative energies in the world must 
have conspired. 

The Lord has revealed to us a 
vast body of spiritual truth through 
Swedenborg. These doctrines of 
heaven are received by the spiritual 
man through intelligence, and per- 
C(!ived by the celestial man through 
affection. These spiritual truths 
correspond to celestial goods, and 
are their recipient vessels. When 
the charity and truth of this New 
Church prevail indeed, all things 
will' be reduced to order. There 
will be no sin, no disease, no oppres- 
sion. All social and political enig- 
mas will have been solved. 



African Slavery. 



Discarding the perplexities of de- 
tail and grasping' only the large 
facts, Ave may say for all practical 
purposes, that three great races ex- 
ist at present on the earth, with 
distinctive spiritual peculiarities. 
There is the white race, with the 
natural or scientific plane of thought, 
open and cultivated, and with the 
capacity of becoming either spirit- 
ual or celestial. Secondly, there is 
the yellow, or Asiatic race, sensual- 
corporeal outwardly, but capable of 
becoming spiritual by an opening of 
its interiors. Lastly, there is the 
African, still more grossly sensual- 
corporeal outwardly, but capable of 
becoming celestial by the opening of 
his interiors. Now influx being 
through the Church established 
among the white race, how are these 
other races to bo brought into con- 
tact with the white race, so as to be- 
come truly recipient of the influx 
from heaven ? Alissionary, commer- 
cial, and military intercourse have 
proved fruitless. The reason is, the 
scientific or natural plane of thought 
in those nations or races is not open 
as it is in the European. Above the 
sensual-corporeal sphere, which is 
common to all, we have little or 
nothing which communicates or 
touches. They think, feel, and act 
^ differently from us in every thing. 
There is an impassable gulf between 
us. They do not understand us, nor 
we them. The cause lies in our 
organic spiritual differences. Those 
who have studied the Negro, or the 
Indian, or the Hindoo closel}', under- 
stand what I mean by this strange 
incommunicability of thought. 

The African of the western coast is 
thoroughly sensual-corporeal, a per- 
fect barbarian. His fetichism is to 
the perverted celestial, what Asiatic 
idolatry is to the perverted spiritual. 
His hereditary influx is derived 
from the third, or deepest hell, and 
no exertion of his volitional or intel- 
lectual faculties can ever deliver 
him from its bondage. But our 
Lord, who, in preparing to establish 
his celestial church, is reducing 



those antediluvian hells to order 
by powerful external restraints and 
severe punishments, has prepared 
also a way for the poor African's 
(!scape. The coast African alone, of 
all the races in the world, eats dirt, 
and worships, with horrid rites, the 
serpent — the t^'pe of the sensual- 
corpoi'eal principle to which he is 
enslaved. Why has the African been 
subordinated to the white man ? 
Why have his masters been changed ? 
By African slavery the sensual- 
corpjoreal principle of the African is 
brought into obedience and subjec- 
tion to the natural or scientific j^lane 
of the white man's life. The white 
man tvills and thinks for him, de- 
termines his outgoings and his in- 
comings, his food, his clothing, his 
sleep, his work, etc. He compels 
him to do uses under a rational and 
scientific supervision. He makes 
him obedient as a child, partly by 
aftectionate control, partly by the 
fear of corporeal punishment. What 
is the result ? His sensual-corporeal 
is adjoined as a servant to the re- 
generate natural of the white man, 
and receives influx through it. His 
hereditary torpor is dissipated ; the 
sphere of oi'der, justice, and active 
use into which he is inserted is re- 
pugnant to his attendant evil spirits, 
and they measurably leave him. He 
begins to feel, think, and act from 
new motives, new influx. His sen- 
sual-corporeal sphere is reduced to 
order, and he acquires something 
similar to the regenerate scientific 
and rational life of the white man. 
This serves as a basis, or vessel, for 
the down-flowing of his innate celes- 
tial "remains." They are vivified. 
He exhibits the virtues, and, in part, 
the graces of the child. He sings, 
he dances, he is light-hearted, taking 
no thought of to-morrow. He is 
truthful and virtuous, faithful and 
affectionate. He is passing through 
the process which Almiglity God has 
provided, and which will eventuate 
in his true liberty and his final sal- 
vation. "Bonds make free, so they 
be righteous bonds." 



The Spiritual Philosophy of 



Suppose he is prematurely libera- 
ted from the control of the white man, 
before the new basis for celestial 
influx has been duly formed ? He 
relapses into indolence, superstition, 
vice, and barbarism. His natural or 
scientitic plane of thought can not be 
(ipened or cultivated, under the best 
influences, beyond that of the white 
child of ten and twelve years. Polit- 
ical privileges and general education 
would suffocate the only true life he 
has, and leave in its place the poor 
boon of imitating the white man in 
those points where he has least pros- 
pect of success. The celestial man 
is alwaj'^s a child, and knows nothing 
of politics. His knowledge and 
science will come by intuition and 
correspondence, and not by rule and 
precept, by books and colleges. Little 
do they know of the African or his 
mission, who wish him to compete 
with the white man in the studio and 
the forum. He wants nothing at 
present but wise discipline, and room 
and opportunity for the outworking 
of heavenly affections into an orderly 
sensual-corporeal life. 

Tlie evils of slav(;ry, like those of all 
human society, are many and formi- 
dable, but they are not inherent in the 
institution. They flow from the iin- 
regenerate natural life of the white 
man acting upon the sensual-corpo- 
real sphere of the subjugated African. 
Negroes may be made miserable, just 
as wives and children are in the un- 
regenerate domestic circle. But who- 
ever believes in Providence knows 
that the regeneration of the race is 
steadily and surely progressing, and 
the evils of slavery are not to be 
removed by its abolition, which would 
be a retrograde step in the economy 
of God, but by the continued Christian 
culture of both master and slave. 

Is there no comfort or pleasure 
to the Christian heart in the contem- 
plation of the fact, now fully authen- 
ticated, that there are at this time 
four millions of black laborers in the 
United States — better fed, better 
clothed, more lightl}'^ tasked, more 
humanely and sympathetically treat- 



ed, and really happier and more con- 
tented on the fair average than any 
other four millions of laborers on the 
face of the globe ? But what is this 
to deeper and more significant 
truths ? African slavery has convert- 
ed more heathen to Christianity than 
all the missionary efforts of all the 
churches in all ages of the world 
combined. Let the New Churchman 
think of the additions which have 
been made to the New Church in the 
heavens from this source ! Let him 
reflect upon their reactionary influ- 
ence on the church and the world ! 
Will not the celestial church become 
ultimated upon earth just in propor- 
tion as the African is elevated and 
civilized? Will not the celestial in- 
flux flow directly from the African into 
the spiritual "remains" of the Asiatic, 
and after awhile awaken that dormant 
continent to the beauty and glory of 
the New Church life ? There will be no 
need to enslave the Asiatic, because 
by the vivification of the celestial 
"remains" in the African the highest 
stand-point for divine influx into every 
thing beneath it will have been at- 
tained. 

It would be pleasant for us, but it 
is not necessary, to foresee clearly 
the final issues of African slavery. 
One thing is certain, however long it 
lasts, however far it extends, and 
whatever different phases it may 
assume, — whenever the celestial "re- 
mains" have been thoroughly vivified, 
and divine influx resumes its old 
channel from the inmost to the out- 
most, correspondences will reacquire 
their old power, and the external 
again be made to correspond with the 
internal. All the repulsive features 
of the African will then disappear, 
and his will be the most beautiful 
and lovely of all the races in the 
world. His political status, that 
miserable bone of contention with us 
poor naturalists, I shall not pretend 
to prophesy. If he is true to his ce- 
lestial genius, he will choose to be 
" the servant of all." 

While it is true that the posses- 
sion of irresponsible power by the 



African Slavery. 



unregCTierate man is fatal or injurious 
both to himself and his inferiors, it 
is equally true that, where there is 
properChristian culture, slaveholding 
is neither a sin nor a curse to the 
master. The proper subordination 
of the African is fraught Avith benefit 
to himself, the church and the world, 
and it is hard to believe that the 
millions of the white race who are 
involuntary agents in the work, are 
to reap nothing but evil from the in- 
stitution. It appears to me that the 
white man derives much of the " ce- 
lestial" in childhood by his contact 
and dealings with the negro race. 
The character of the southern man is 
impulsive, credulous, generous, and 
childlike. His emotional life pre- 
dominates over the scientific and in- 
tellectual spheres ; while the reverse 
is the case with our northern brethren. 
And he excels all other races in that 
beautiful deference to woman, which 
belongs to the celestial genius, and is 
one of the best tests of a high civil- 
ization. Slaveholding enlarges the 
sphere of our duties and responsibili- 
ties, and where these are met and 
discharged in a lofty and conscien- 
tious Christian spirit, the character 
must of necessity be purified and 
elevated by the experience. 

The New Churchman will bear in 
mind that the end of slavery is to 
subordinate the sensual-corjwreal of 
the African to the regenerate natural 
of the white race, and so procure an 
orderly basis for the descent of the 
celestial. The spiritual causes at 
work are no doubt the same as those 
by which our Lord is pi'eparing the 
way for the celestial church in us as 
well as in the African, and reducing 
the third or deepest hell to order. As 
the force of hereditary influx from 
that hell into the African is broken, 
he will be more and more prepared 
for the glorious destiny which certain- 
ly awaits him. How long the dis- 
ciplinary ordeal is to last we can not 
tell. The wise and salutary control 
of the white man will probably be 
imposed upon the African throughout 
all the tropical regions, in which, by 



reason of correspondence, the celes- 
tial church of the future will most 
especially flourish. From this time 
forth, if let alone, the institution will 
go on, under the divine auspices, to 
improvement and perfection, until 
the relation of master and slave will 
indeed be as tender, beautiful, and 
sacred as that of parent and child. 

Now, why are our aborigines, and 
the Sandwich Islanders, the New 
Zealanders, the Australians, etc., etc., 
fading away before the encroach- 
ments of white power and civiliza- 
tion ? They will soon be all extinct, 
one of the strangest and most melan- 
choly facts, says Mr. Everett, in 
human history. Now these people 
are not enslaved. Their sensual-cor- 
poreal principle comes into contact 
with ours, but it is not subordinated 
to our scientific and rational facul- 
ties. They only learn our sensual 
vices, and contract our diseases and 
perish. The same influx which, flow- 
ing through the natural plane of the 
white man into the subordinated 
sensual-corporeal of the Negro, makes 
him the longest lived and most pro- 
lific race in the world, flowing into 
the disorderl}' sphere of the unsub- 
dued Indian, exterminates him. The 
same thing happens to Negroes when 
they are released from the control of 
the white man, and yet live within 
his powerful sphere. Free Negroes 
everywhere will ultimately die out 
in the presence of white civilization. 
The British Civilization Society will 
depopulate Africa instead of enlight- 
ening it. The safety of the Negro 
lies, first of all, in his wise and 
humane subordination in some form 
to the white race. 

It may be that our aboriginal 
Indian, the most sullen, revengeful, 
malicious, cruel, and implacable crea- 
ture in the world, represents the 
perversion of celestial good and its 
consequent ineradicable falsities. 
He may have no recipient vessels in 
his mind (truths are such vessels) 
for reformatory influXj and the sphere 
of the celestial heavens, now begin- 
ning to operate, may suffocate and 



10 



The Spiritual Philosophy of 



destroy him. The Xcg-i'o being* per- 
verted only as to celestial truths, in- 
flux takes place into a g-ood will- 
principle, and there is only need of 
an orderly arrangement of all the in- 
ferior planes and faculties for its 
happy descent into ultimates. These 
and many other curious points easily 
sug'gest themselves to those ac- 
quainted with the New Church psy- 
chology. 

From this new and spiritual stand- 
point, can we not look down and 
iuvcdjzQ some of the causes at work 
in the great anti-slavery agitation of 
tlie present time ? It is pronounced 
good by the greatest and best author- 
ities of the age. Statesmen, philoso- 
phers, divines, and poets, vie with 
each other in denouncing the institu- 
tion of slavery as " the sum of all 
villainies," and in laboring, not for 
its amelioration and perfection, but 
for its total abolition. Can it be 
possible that all these great and 
good men and women are mistaken ? 
It is even so. They are unconscious- 
ly involved in a vast vortex of the 
most subtle and direful phantasies. 
Devils and enthusiastic spirits con- 
spire to thwart the operations of 
Divine Providence, to prevent the 
opening of the spiritual and celestial 
planes of life, and to oppose the de- 
scent of a celestial church in the 
world. If they can liberate the sensu- 
al-corporeal of the African race from 
the control of the regenerating natu- 
ral of the white race, the passage of 
the celestial into ultimates is meas- 
urably prevented. The African re- 
turns to his barbarism or perishes in 
presence of the white man ; the 
material interests of the world arc 
shaken to the centre ; revolution, war, 
destitution, anarchy, are engendered ; 
the heavens are closed, the hells 
opened ; angels recede and devils re- 
joice. The Abolition spirit is the 
subtlest demonism of the age. Iiln- 
thusiastic evil spirits have taken 
possession of the reason, the imagina- 
tion, the fancy, and almost the senses 
of its devotees. And it is part and 
parcel of a still more general eflbrt 



of the hells to emancipate the whole 
sensual-corporeal sphere of tlie race 
from the control of the higher facul- 
ties. 

To accomplish this gigantic scheme 
of evil, the hells have cunningly as- 
sumed the livery of heaven. The 
noblest instincts and passions of the 
soul are enlisted in the mighty work. 
The love of life and liberty, the hatred 
of cruelty and oppression, pity for the 
weak and helpless, sympathy for the 
distressed and struggling, and the 
generous spirit of self-sacrifice for the 
good of others, have all been pervert- 
ed from their true spheres and uses, 
to vitalize and sanctify this mysteri- 
ous movement of the hells. So blind- 
ed are their human agents, that they 
see little or no difference between 
Garibaldi contending in Italy and 
John Brown plotting in Virginia, and 
regard the liberation of Negroes and 
the emancipation of Russian serfs 
as events occurring on the same 
plane, and of equivalent value. I 
know of nothing, save the grace of 
God, which can dissipate these delu- 
sions, but the New Church doctrines 
of Order, Influx, Degrees, and Corre- 
spondence, and their cautious appli- 
cation to the philosophy of history. 

Who values free institutions and 
constitutional liberty more sincerely 
than the southern patriot ? Who 
has made more splendid sacrifices in 
their behalf ? Who is readier at this 
moment to lay down life and fortune 
in the maintenance of equal rights 
and liberal govcriunont ? AVho re- 
joices more gladly that the serfs are 
emancipated, and that Italy is free ? 
The bondage of white man to white 
man, or of black man to black man, 
is fraught only with evil. It is insti- 
gated by the devils, who, from the 
love of self and the lust of power, 
impose their own thoughts and wills 
upon otliers in the hells. The church, 
which is based upon spiritual free- 
dom, can never be truly ultimated in 
any given plane of life, until all res- 
ident upon that plane are free and 
equal. But, in the name of truth 
and justice, is not the subordination 



African Slavery. 



11 



of the Nef^ro to the Avhite man a very 
different thing- ? The Negro is a child, 
org'anicall}' and spiritually a child — 
not to be made a man of onr sort by 
any amount of political or scientific 
culture. The relation of master and 
slave is for him a far better and hap- 
pier one than that of capitalist and 
laborer. lie can only think and will 
for himself sensiially and corporeal- 
ly : it is vastly to his advantage that 
we should thiidv and will for him ra- 
tionally and scientifically. His true 
life and hope and liberty are to be 
found under the patriarchal system. 
Let us adopt him into our family. 
Let us lead him firmly but tenderly 
and wisely. Let us forbear with him 
and forgive him, but let us also gov- 
ern and correct him. Let us imbue 
him with all the knowledges he can 



truly use and enjoy, and grant him 
every liberty and pleasure which is 
rational and proper. Let us do for 
him just what we would be wise in 
asking him to do for us, if we were 
spiritually and physically organized 
as he is. We have a hard task to 
accomplish, but with patience and 
gentleness and humility and wisdom 
from above it will be accomplished 
at last. In the mean time, let us re- 
gard those who oppose us, the accus- 
ers of their brethren, loss in anger 
than in sorrow. All this we may do, 
etill believing that the worst eneni}'- 
of the Negro, of his own race and 
country, of the world and of the 
church, is he who, by precipitate 
and disorderly methods, would sun- 
der the existing relation between 
master and slave. 



%xt ^Ebanans tk gtscciiiiants of i\t 3tnt^5iIllbians ? 



In the preceding essay on the 
" Spiritual Philosophy of African 
Slaverj^," I ventured the assertion, 
that the barbarians of the world, and 
especially the dark-skinned savages, 
are descendants of the antediluvians. 
The New Church reader will perhaps 
ask, What rational ground is there for 
such an hypothesis ? 

There are evidently three great 
classes or types of men now existing 
in the world. 

1. Barbarians. — These people have 
never invented an alphabet, and there- 
fore have no literature, no science, no 
theology, no rational government. 
They lead the senaual-corporeal life 
of animals, with merely the exterior- 
natural, as Swedenborg calls it, of 
human life. They do not accumulate 
facts so as to cultivate the scienlific 



principle ; nor have they the least idea 
of the rational, winch is still more in- 
terior. Consequently, they are totally 
unprogressive. 

2. Semi-civilized naiions. — We may 
take the Hindoos as the most ancient 
and best type of this class. They 
have the most extraordinary litera- 
ture, theology, government, habits, 
customs, etc., thousands of years old, 
and in a strangely crystallized or un- 
progressive condition. They are per- 
fect enigmas to us modern thinkers ; 
nor is there any key to the mystery, 
but the science of correspondences. 
I assume that all such nations are the 
descendants of the men of the Ancient 
Church, and have been made unpro- 
gressive by the closure of the qyiritual 
degree of the human mind. 

3 Modern civilized nations — With 



12 



The Spiritual Philosophy of 



the scientific and rational faculties of 
the mind in constant and progressive 
activity. 

It is the ineradicable fault of 
modern philosophy to suppose that 
there has been, from the beginning, 
a reg'ular progressive development 
of the human race from the savage 
condition upward, into the light and 
beauty of civilization. It presumes 
that all nations were originally bar- 
barous, with fetichism for tlieir first 
and only theological manifestation. 
From this stage they passed into a 
semi-civilized condition, with poly- 
theism for their religion ; and, lastly, 
they became scientific and philo- 
sophical, and, as to their theological 
opinions, atheistic, deistic, or mono- 
theistic. This corresponds to M. 
Comte's three stages of human evo- 
lution — the mythical, the metaphys- 
ical, and the positive. 

The Europeans, it is assumed, have 
outstripped all others in the race of 
civilization, on account of superior 
organization of brain, and a great 
number of favoring natural and ex- 
ternal causes. And it is confidently 
expected that the African and the 
Asiatic will, finally, come up to the 
same point of development, under the 
influence of similar stimuli and sur- 
rounding circumstances. 

I can not here appeal, as I might, 
to every department of human knowl- 
edge and inquiry to refute this doc- 
trine, that the savage is tlie primitive 
man, or the seed out of which in due 
time the civilized man is unfolded. I 
will make a single quotation from a 
distinguished Old Church authority, 
and then pass on to a more strictly 
New Cimrch, or Swedenborgian, view 
of the subject : 

" Were the savage the primitive 
man, we should tlien find savage 
tribes furnished, scantily enougii it 
might be, with the elements of speech, 
yet at the same time witii its fruitful 
beginnings, its vigorous and healthful 
germs. But what does their language 
on close inspection prove ? In every 
case, what they are themselves, the 
remnant and ruin of a better and 



nobler past. Fearful indeed is the 
impress of degradation which is 
stamped upon the language of the 
savage — more fearful than that even 
which is stamped upon his form. 

" Yet with all this, ever aud anon 
in the midst of this wreck and ruin 
there is that in the language of the 
savage, some subtle distinction, some 
curious allusion to a perished civili- 
zation, now utterly unintelligible to 
the speaker ; or some other note, 
which proclaims his language to be 
the remains of a dissipated inherit- 
ance, the rags and remnants of a 
robe which was a royal one once. 
The fragments of a broken sceptre 
are in his hand, a sceptre wherewith 
he (or rather his progenitors) once 
held dominion over large kingdoms 
of thought, which have now escaped 
wholly from his sway." — Dr. Richard 
Trench, on the Study of Wo7'ds, pp. 
26 and 27. 

Swedenborg asserts that there 
were three great and distinct civili- 
zations before the coming of Christ — 
celestial, spiritual, and natural — con- 
nected by influx, we may safely pre- 
sume, respectively with the three 
distinct heavens. The church is the 
medium of life, and progress occurs 
first and prominently on the plane 
where the church is. The ancient 
civilizations perished because the 
celestial and spiritual degrees of tiie 
human mind were successively closed. 
Now is it not probable that barbar- 
ism resulted from tlie closure of the 
celestial plane, and that a barbarian 
is a man spiritually organized like 
a child, that is, leading a sensual-cor- 
poreal life with celestial " remains" 
stored away in his interiors ? 

Does the New Churchman object, 
that the whole human race perished 
at the flood or closure of the celestial 
plane, except the " remnant" in whom 
the spiritual plane could be opened ? 
and that all men thereafter are of 
the spiritual or natural type ? I an- 
swer, what then can Swedenborg 
mean by saying that the African race 
is of the celestial genius ? Does he 
mean spiritual-celestial, analogous to 



Sfrican Slavery. 



13 



one half of the spiritual heavens ? I 
think not, for the African would then 
exhibit some token or trace, as the 
Asiatic does, of having once enjoyed 
a high degree of spiritual light. But 
he is thoroughly sensual-corporeal, 
and his "remains" are evidently ce- 
lestial, nor has he ever had any thing 
about him of which the spiritual could 
be predicated. 

The first men created on earth were 
of the celestial genius. A celestial 
church was established among them 
which no doubt had its rise, culmina- 
tion, and fall. There is no reason, 
however, to suppose that every cre- 
ated being had been brouglit into its 
intimate communion before its dete- 
rioration, nor that all, save the spir- 
itual remnant, were suffocated by its 
disappearance. The following from 
Swedenborg appears satisfactory on 
that point : 

" By all which is on the earth ex- 
piring, those are signified who being 
of that church had acquired such a 
nature, as may appear from this con- 
sideration, that earth does not signify 
the whole habitable globe, but only 
those who are of the church, as was 
shown above. Consequently there is 
no particular flood here meant, much 
less a universal flood, but only the 
expiration or suffocation of those who 
were of the clmrch, when tliey had 
separated themselves from remains, 
and thereby from the intellectual 
things of truth, and from what ap- 
pertained to the will of good, conse- 
quently from the heavens." A. C. 
662. 

Swedenborg expressly declares 
that this suff"ocation or closure of the 
celedial plane in those of the Most 
Ancient Church, and the opening of 
the spiritual plane for the establish- 
ment of a spiritual church, were 
gradual processes. Those who had 
extinguished remains by immersion 
in lusts and phantasies no doubt per- 
ished. No doubt also this process 
would have gone on to the extermi- 
nation of the whole race, for influx is 
tln-ough the church alone. But with 
the opening of the spiritual degree, a 
crreat orsranic modification was in- 



duced. Influx came through the spir- 
itual into the natural and thence into 
the corporeal. The sensual-corporeal 
life of both men and brutes was main- 
tained by the influx from the New 
Church. The process of extinction 
was arrested, but all, save the spir- 
itual remnant, were left in a sensual- 
corporeal condition, with some few 
celestial " remains" deeply imbedded 
in their structure — their sole hope of 
future resuscitation. 

This rationale of barbarism, accord - 
ing to the New Church psychology, 
seems to be eminently clear and beau- 
tiful. It explains the mysteries of 
savage life. It shows why the sci- 
entific, rational, and spiritual degrees 
have not been opened in his mind. 
His "remains" are celestial, and not 
till they are vivified, will his inferior 
faculties develop. No influx or cre- 
ative impetus has reached these re- 
mains since the flood — for no celestial 
church has existed. When inferior 
things have been subordinated and 
CO ordinated for the descent of the 
celestial, then will those nations of the 
celestial tj'pe who can receive the 
new influx — especially the Africans 
— reveal the mercy, and wisdom, and 
power of God in a manner surpass- 
ingly strange and beautiful. 

Some barbarians appear doomed 
to inevitable extinction, such as our 
American Indians, the Australians, 
the Bushmen, some wild tribes in 
Ceylon and Malabar who live in trees 
and are very little superior to apes, 
the cannibals of Madagascar, some 
hopelessly degraded races in Siberia, 
Patagonia, and elsewhere, etc., etc. 
Do they not all represent certain 
great principles or qualities in the 
Most Ancient Church, of which the 
" remains" were becoming extinct ? 
Were they not secured a low kind of 
physical existence by the change of 
influx as above mentioned, and will 
not the incipient influx of the celes- 
tial church ensure their destruction ? 

Swedenborg speaks always well 
of the Africans, and his description 
of them, from a spiritual stand-point, 
will hereafter be regarded as a strong 
external proof of the reliabilitv of his 



14 



The Spiritual Philosophy of 



own revelations. It is singular that 
although Africa is west and south- 
west of Asia and south of Europe, 
Swedenborg says Africa in tlic spir- 
itual or angelic sense means tlie East. 
(Apoc. Ex. 21.) It was of course 
correspondential, representing the 
celestial state nearest the Lord. Its 
first people must have been celestial. 
In my former essay I intimated 
my belief tliat the Africans are to 
play a great part in the ultimation 
of the celestial church and the regen- 
eration of the world. It is more than 
a curious coincidence tliat at the 
time Swedenborg was revealing the 
vast organic system of spiritual truth, 
%vhich is the doctrine of angels, a 
revelation was being made to negroes 
in the interior of Africa. Of this re- 
markable fact we have as j'et no ex- 
ternal proof, but no New Churchman 
doubts that Swedenborg's statement 
will be verified, perhaps in some un- 
anticipated manner. Notice this 
passage from Swedenborg : " I have 
heard the angels rejoice at this rev- 
elation, because it serves to open a 
communication ivith the rational prin- 
cii^le in man, which has been liereto- 
fore closed up with the universally 
received dogma, tliat the understand- 
ing should be kept in obedience to 
ecclesiastical faith." T. C. R. 840. 
Now if I understand this sentence 
aright, it means, that we owe much 
of our great emancipation from the 
dogmas of the past to the quiet and 
imperceptible influx into our rational 
principle, of a sphere flowing from a 
little obscure community in Africa, 
whose celestial "remains" have been 
vivified by the special implantation 
of truth. What eflect then may we 
presume the sphere of Christianized 
Africans in the south to have on the 
world and church at large ? The 
natural man would scout such an 
idea, because he knows nothing of 
influx and correspondences. We 
may owe all of our boasted civil 
and religious liberty to the fact, that 
the inmost celestial sphere of Africa 
has here in America impinged upon 
the rational-scientific sphere of the 
European. Hence the whole world 



is thrown into dire commotion about 
African slavery. It is, indeed, the 
question of questions. The whole 
future of the cinirch depends on the 
existence and Christianizationof this 
institution. Devils and enthusiastic 
spirits, by the agency of fanatics and 
misguided good people, would thwart 
the influx from the celestial by re- 
storing the African to his original 
barbarism. 

It is curious and instructive to see 
how spheres withdraw or approach, 
and are correspondentially represent- 
ed in history. The celestial is closed, 
and Africa and America disappear 
from the consciousness of the race. 
The spiritual is closed, and Hindo- 
stan, China, and Japan exist to the 
Greek and Roman only b}^ tradition. 
The natural is nearly closed, and the 
Jew alone remains, thoroughly sen- 
sual-corporeal — the ultimate form of 
the ancient civilizations. The new 
natural of ascending civilization is 
formed in Europe, and spheres ap- 
proach again. Asia comes into con- 
tact with Europe by the crusades, 
the career of Moor and Turk, and, 
finall}'-, by the British domination in 
India. Asia comes into contact with 
Africa by the Moor and Arab impos- 
ing the Mohammedan religion on al- 
most all the tribes of Central Africa. 
The celestial approaches, and Africa 
and America are re-discovered. Af- 
rica comes into contact with Europe 
in America — and it will meet Asia 
again on the same ground by the 
emigration from China to our Pacific 
Coast, and the importation of Coolies 
into tropical America. The celestial, 
spiritual, and natural will meet in 
tropical America, and not until their 
spheres have been fully subordinated 
and co-ordinated will the New Jeru- 
salem descend in all its fulness upon 
earth, and the New Zion be estab- 
lished. The Jew — the connecting 
link between the descending and as- 
cending civilizations will be the 

last to be regenerated, and then the 
triumph of our Lord, the Redeemer, 
will be complete. 

No one, I hope, will infer from 
these remarks that I suppose the 



African Slavery. 



15 



celestial, spiritual, and natural, which 
are discrete degrees, can possibly 
exist upon the same plane. If the 
celestial church had not fallen, wc 
would have remained forever in con- 
nection with the third heavens. If 
the spiritual church could have per- 
sisted, we might have been still con- 
nected by influx with the second 
heavens, and so on. But having 
descended into the sensual-corporeal, 
we become by the process of recon- 
struction or regeneration only celes- 
tial-natural or spiritual-natural. The 
African will be celestial-natural, the 
Asiatic spiritual-natural, the Europe- 
an either. Our world, according to 
Swedenborg, belongs to the corpo- 
real sphere, and has place in the 
cutaneous principle of the Grand 
Man. For this reason the Word is 
given here in so sensuous a form, 
and our Lord became a sensual-cor- 
poreal being on our planet. All 
things are repeated or represented 
in ultimates, and hence our descent 
from the celestial to th'e sensual, and 
our acquisition of a new basis into 
which all tlie higher elements may 
be inserted. 

If I am not greatly mistaken, the 
application of the doctrines of influx, 
order, series, degrees, and correspond- 
ence, in the light of .Swedenborg's 
direct revelations, to the phj'sical, 
moral, and historical study of man, 
will be productive of great resiilts. 
Physiologists, ethnologists, and his- 
torians are collecting the facts, which 
the New Church philosophy alone can 
ever harmonize or explain. 

Not only will the natural history 
of man and the philosophy of history 
be elevated into rational light, but 
the moral government of God will 
be vindicated from many objections 
which have been urged against it. 
God created no man a savage, or 
black, or yellow, or hideous and de- 
formed, or idiotic, or insane. Men 
have made themselves and their chil- 
dren so. God go%'erns the hells and 
all states of human imperfection and 
barbarism with infinite mercy. By 
confining a vast portion of the race 
for a definite and provisional period 



to barbarism, he saved them from to- 
tal annihilation. Those people view- 
ed in spiritual light are children, and 
they have unquestionably been saved 
in heaven. The fears of orthodoxy 
for their salvation are wholly gratui- 
tous. In the fulness of time, when 
His celestial church is ultimated, 
these people, pi'eserved as a remnant 
or seed for that very purpose, will be 
the principal means and agents to 
a perfect reorganization of society. 
The end was foreseen in the begin- 
ning and provided for. He has led 
us by ways we knew not, and we 
may be sure, that the wonders and 
mercies of the past will be immeasur- 
ably eclipsed by those of the future. 
"The light of the moon shall be as 
the light of the sun, and the light of 
the sun shall be sevenfold." 



Dr. Horace Bushnell, in his -work on 
" Nature and the Supernatural," cites a 
case in his own experience, of what he re- 
gards as the possession of a spiritual gift in 
an African, which may perhaps be referred 
to the " vivification of remains." After 
relating numerous fiicts in proof that 
" miracles and spiritual gifts are not dis- 
continued," Dr. B. proceeds : 

'' I cite only one more witness ; a man 
who carries the manner and supports the 
office of a prophet, though without claiming 
the repute of it himself. He is a fugitive 
from slavery, whose name I had barely 
heard, but whose character and life have 
been known to many in our community, for 
the last twenty years. He called at my 
door, about the time I was sketching the 
outline of this chapter, requesting an inter- 
view. As I entered the room, it was quite 
evident that he was struggling with a good 
deal of mental agitation, though his manner 
was firm, and even dignified. He said im- 
mediately, that he had come to me ' with a 
message from de Lord.* I replied, that 1 
was glad if he had any so good thing as that 
for me, and hoped he would deliver it faith- 
fully. He told me, in terms of great deli- 
cacy, and with a seriousness that excluded 
all appearance of a design to win his way 
by flattery, that he had conceived the 
greatest personal interest in me, because, in 
hearing me once or twice, he had discovered 
that God was teaching me, and discovering 
Himself to me in a way that was specially 
hopeful ; and that, for this very reason, he 
had been suffering the greatest personal 
burdens of feeling on my account. For 



16 



The Spiritual Philosophy of African Slavery. 



more than a year he had been praying for 
me, and sometimes iu the night, because of 
his apprehension that I had made a false 
step, and been disobedient to the heavenly 
vision. During all this time, he had been 
struggling also with the question, whether 
he might come and see me, and testify his 
concern for me ? 

" I asked him to explain, and not to suf- 
fer any feeling of constraint. In a manner 
of the greatest deference possible, and with 
a most singularly beautiful skill, he went on, 
gathering round his point, and keeping it all 
the while concealed, as he was nearing it, 
straightening up his tall, manly form, drop- 
pingout his Africanisms, rising in the port 
of his language, beaming with a look of in- 
telligence and spiritual beauty, all in a man- 
ner to second his prophetic formulas — ' The 
Lord said to me' thus and thus ; ' The Lord 
has sent me to say ;' till I also, as I gazed 
upon him, was obliged internally to confess, 
' verily, Nathan the prophet has come 
again !' It was really a scene such as any 
painter might look a long time to find- 
such dignity in one so humble ; expression 
so lofty, and yet so gentle and respectful ; 
theair of a prophet so commanding and 
positive, and yet in such divine authority, as 
to allow no sense of forwardness or pre- 
sumption. 

" It came out, finally, as the burden of 
the message, that on a certain occasion, and 
in reference to a certain public matter, I had 
undertaken that which could not but with- 
draw me from God's teaching, and was cer- 
tain to obscure the revelations otherwise 
ready and waiting to be made. ' Yes,' I re- 
plied, ' but there was nothing wrong in what 
I undertook to set forward.' It brought no 
scandal on religion. It concerned, you will 
admit, the real benefit of the public, in all 
future times.' ' Ah, yes,' he answered, ' it 
was well enough to be done, but it was not 
for you. God had other and better things 
for you. He was calling you to Himself, 
and it was yours to go with Jlim, not to be 
laboring in things more properly belon"-in"- 
to other men.' I had given him the plea, by 
which, drawing on my natural judgment, I 
had justified myself in going into the en- 
gagement in question. And yet, I am 
obliged to confess to a strong, and even 
prevalent impression, that my humble 
brother was right. 

" I thanked him for his message, and even 
looked upon him with a kind of reverence 
as we parted. I foutid, on inquiry, that he 
was a man without blame, industrious, pure, \ 
a husband and father, faithful to his office, ' 
and always in the same high key of(Jhristian 
living. But the people of his color, know- 
ing him well, and having nothing to say 



against him, could yet offer no opinion at 
all concerning him. He was plainly enough 
a strange being to them ; they could make 
nothing of him. The most they could say 
was, that he is always the same. 

" I have since visited him, in his little 
shop, and drawn out of him the story of bis 
life. He became a Christian about the time 
of his arrival at manhood, and gives a very 
clear and beautiful account of his con- 
version. And the Lord, he says, told him, 
at that time, that he should be free, soul and 
body. To which he answered, ' Yea, Lord, 
I know it.' A promise that was afterward 
fulfilled in a very strange and wonderful 
deliverance. I observed that, in the ac- 
count he gave me, he was continually say- 
ing, in the manner of the prophets, ' the 
Lord said,' and ' the Lord commanded,' and 
' the Lord promised,' and I called his attea- 
tion to the fact, asking — what do you mean 
by this? Do you hear words audibly 
spoken ? ' Oh no.' ' What then ? Do 
you think what appears to be said to you, 
and call that the saying of the Lord ?' 
' Yes, I think it ; but that is not all.' 
' How then do you know that it is any thing 

more than 's thought ?' ' Well, I know 

it, I feel it to be not from me, and I can tell 
you things that show it to be so ;' reciting 
facts, which, if they are true, prove beyond 
a question, the certainty of some illumina- 
tion not of himself. ' Why, then,' I asked, 
' does God teach you in this manner, and not 
me? I feel a strong conviction, sometimes, 
that I am in the will, I know not how, and 
the directing counsel of God, but I could 
never say, as you do, ' the Lord said thus to 
me.' ' Ah,' said he, ' but you have the. 
means — you can read as I can not, you have 
great learning. But I am a poor, Ignorant 
child, and God does with me just as he can.' 
Whatever may be thought of his revela- 
tions, none, I think, will deny him, in his re- 
ply, the credit of a true philosophy. What 
can be worthier of God. than to be the guide 
of this faithful, and otherwise dejected man, 
making up for his privations of ignorance, 
by the fuller and more open vision of Him- 
self? 

" And yet I should leave a wrong impres- 
sion, were I not to say, that this Christian 
fugitive, this unlettered body servant, now, 
of Christ, as once of his earthly master, is 
deep in the wisdom of the Scriptures, quotes 
them continually with a remarkable elo- 
quence and propriety, and with a degree of 
insight which many of the best educated 
preachers might envy. He also believes 
that God has healed the sick, in many in- 
stances, in immediate connection with his 
prayers, giving the names and particulars 
without scruple." 



17 



Ijat 60fenmuntis|tst|.kptcir to % %inm §t\m? 



The intelligent Swedenborgian can 
hardly doubt the plausibility of the 
hypothesis advanced in the two pre- 
ceding chapters, viz., that barbarians 
in general, and our imported Africans 
especially, are descendants of some 
degraded portion of the most ancient 
church. They have celestial " re- 
mains," and are capable of the celes- 
tial life, when elevated above the 
sensual-corporeal sphere into which 
they are at present immersed. 

That celestial life is unlike our 
rational-scientific life, of which in our 
ignorance and vanity we boast so 
much. It needs no book-learning, no 
colleges, no arts and sciences for its 
development. We can not impose 
our peculiarly natural civilization on 
the Negro, save to his detriment. No 
possible cultivation, after the methods 
suited to our specific genius, can 
evoke into life and vigor the dormant 
seeds of the celestial nature slumber- 
ing in the African bosom. The course 
of his influx is from within outward, 
from centre to circumference. What 
he wants first of all is a proper basis, 
an orderly and well-regulated sensual- 
corporeal sphere, to serve as a recipi- 
ent vessel for the down-flowing pow- 
ers within him. He will procure 
spiritual truths just as fast as he can 
ultimate his celestial affections. 

Now the Negro has a perfect and 
inalienable right to whatever will 
develop and make active his true 
organic spiritual nature. If inter- 
course with the superior races, com- 
mercial relations, trade and treaties, 
missionary efforts, and educational 
enterprises can civilize the African, 



rouse his dormant energies, cultivate 
his mind. Christianize his heart, and 
enable him to live an orderly, useful, 
and genuine life, then African slavery 
would have no excuse. But if all 
this had been possible under the op- 
erations of Divine Providence, Afri- 
can slavery would never have had an 
existence. Let all the world know, 
that the Christians of the Southern 
States are ready to turn abolitionists, 
whenever it can be proven that the 
material and spiritual interests of the 
slave will be promoted by a state of 
freedom similar to ours. 

The Dutch and English have had 
flourishing settlements for 200 years 
in Africa, but in ten miles of their 
borders the native is an irreclaimable 
savage. The Portuguese have found- 
ed flourishing colonies, and their 
priests have baptized whole tribes 
into the Catholic Church, but the 
Africans under their influence are 
wretched barbarians. The little col- 
onies of Liberia and Sierra Leone, 
fostered by white protection and 
counsels, have shed no ray of light 
into the darkness surrounding them. 
Missionaries have patiently and zeal- 
ously labored, but in vain. Dr. Liv- 
ingstone, after years of enthusiastic 
effort, has declared that commerce 
and civilization must precede re- 
ligion. The free Negroes of Hayti 
are fast relapsing into barbarism and 
idolatry. Those of Jamaica, although 
under the strong military and civil 
surveillance of Great Britain, have 
sunk into idleness and pauperism, 
and disappointed the hopes of phi- 
lanthropy. The free Negroes of the 



18 



The Spiritual Philosophy of 



North arc generally pests to their 
neighborhoods, and enjoy the name 
without the blessings of freedom. In 
Canada it is even worse. The Negro 
has no conception of the " dignity of 
labor," or of the meaning of inde- 
pendence. Mr. Wilson says that the 
Negroes of the Guinea Coast have no 
higher ambition than to be taken 
into the service of the white man. 
And our free Negroes are mere ap- 
pendages to our civilization, not par- 
takers of it. They are lackies, 
waiters, hangers-on, body servants, 
etc., and nothing more. The few 
who pretend to preach, lecture, edit, 
etc., are mere samples of childish 
precocity, not types of national char- 
acter. How many Negroes have 
hewed their homes and fortunes out 
of the rich and free western wilds, in 
the sturdy spirit of the New England 
pioneer ? None. 

The African race has attained its 
highest present point of development 
in the Southern States, and in the 
condition of slavery. It is more pro- 
lific there than anywhere else in the 
world, or than anj^ other nation in 
the world. It may therefore be safely 
presumed that the checks to popula- 
tion, viz., deficient food, clothing, 
and shelter, excessive laboi*, care, 
crime, misery, and want, do not exist 
in those States to any notable degree. 
In physical, intellectual, and moral 
character the American slave is far 
superior to his African progenitor. 
And this improvement is progressive. 
Amelioration of his condition is con- 
stantly going on, and he is constantly 
also evincing more rationality and 
virtue, more tact and taste, more 
mechanical genius and mental power. 
He has no vices but those he inherit- 
ed from Africa, and he has super- 
added virtues and graces entirely 
unknown to that continent. His re- 
ligious character is capable of the 
most beautiful cultivation, and if our 
Lord this day were to gather up his 
jewels, how many would be found 
among the faithful, humble, affection- 
ate slaves of America 1 

This change has been mainly effect- 



ed by the firm but humane govern- 
ment exercised by the white man 
over the Negro. It is unlike every 
system of slavery which has hereto- 
fore existed, in this, that it is the 
subordination of an inferior to a su- 
perior race, and not a domination of 
one part over another part of the 
same race, or of one race over an 
equal race. The New Churchman 
should weigh well this distinction. 
Things or persons on the same plane 
or in the same series are to be co-or- 
dinaled, while of things or persons 
in different series or planes, the in- 
ferior are to be subordinated to the 
superior. This is the law of divine 
order which prevails in the heavens 
and in all worlds where sin has not 
entered. Woe to that theology or 
philosophy which fails to appreciate 
its deep signification ! 

_ Note well, however, that in this 
system the celestial man is not 
brought into bondage to the natural, 
but that the aen&ual-corporeal sphere 
of the African, which in its barbaric 
state prevents the evolution of his 
celestial " remains," is so subordin- 
ated to the rational-scientific sphere 
of the white man, that his celestial 
nature obtains for the first time the 
means of ultimating itself. The Ne- 
gro thus acquires a sound natural 
basis, somewhat similar to that of the 
white race, into which his descending 
celestial can be inserted. It is the 
duty of the white man to give him 
this basis in a wise and gentle man- 
ner ; and it is the duty of the Negro 
to submit to the disciplinary ordeal 
which may be requisite in attaining 
it. 

To understand this subject more 
fully, let us examine the nature of 
government in general, not in a dry 
political form, but in the glowing 
light of the New Church. Let us 
first refresh our memories with the 
essential principle of government in 
the heavens, according to which all 
our earthly institutions should be 
moulded. 

After asserting that the forms of 
government in heaven are infinitely 



African Slavery. 



19 



various, Swedenborg" g-oes on to say 
of the governors or rulers : 

" They are such as arc distin- 
guished beyond others for love and 
Avisdom, consequently sucli as from 
a principle of love desire the good of 
all, and from the wisdom by which 
also they are distinguished, know 
how to provide that the good they 
desire may be realized. Persons of 
this character do not domineer and 
command imperiously, but minister 
and serve. Neither do they account 
themselves greater than others, but 
less ; for they put the good of socie- 
ty and of their neighbor in the first 
place, and their own in the last. 
The}^, nevertheless, are in the enjoy- 
ment of honor and glorj^, they dwell 
in the centre of the society in a more 
elevated place than others, and in- 
habit magnificent palaces. They also 
accept this glory and that honor, not 
however for their own sake, but for 
the sake of securing obedience ; for 
all in heaven know that honor and 
glory are conferred on them by the 
Lord, and that therefore they are to 
be obeyed." {Heaven and Hell, 218.) 

" A similar government in minia- 
ture obtains also in every house. 
There is in each house a master, and 
there are domestics. The master 
loves the domestics, and the domes- 
tics love the master; the consequence 
of which is that out of love they 
mutuall}'^ serve each other. The 
master teaches how they should live 
and prescribes what they should do, 
and the domestics obey and perform 
their duties. To be of use is the de- 
light of life among all. Hence it is 
evident that the Lord's kingdom is a 
kingdom of uses." {Heaven and HeU, 
219.) 

What a beautiful moral picture is 
here presented ! Will the heavens 
ever truly open and descend upon us 
in this manner ? Think of it ! No 
ambition, no lust of power, no pride 
of place, no contempt of others, no 
mi.ser}'- of the poor, no folly of the 
rich, no envy, no jealousy, no deceit, 
no corruption, no vanitj", no dissatis- 
faction, no inalienable rights to claim 



— but simple duties to ])erform, while 
mutual love and humility reign su- 
preme, and order, peace, and happi- 
ness ensue ! This shining Utopia 
surely beckons us in the shadowy 
distance. Come it will, whoever 
may doubt I It will be effected by 
the Divine Humanity descending 
through the Word and through an- 
gelic spheres, and operating into the 
remotest bounds of nature. On the 
political or civil plane of life, two 
great agencies are at work to pro- 
mote this glorious revolution, viz., 
the doctrine of political equality, 
soon to be restricted to those of equal 
race, and the patriarchal institution 
of slavery, that curious modern ap- 
proach to the end which was in the 
beginning. 

Swedenborg says, that the ante- 
diluvians lived in families under a 
patriarchal head, who representofl 
the Lord, and was at the same tinie 
priest and law-giver, being actuated 
by the purest paternal love. There 
was no political organization what- 
ever, in our sense of the term. Wife, 
children, and their wives and chil- 
dren, and all the men-servants and 
maid-servants, and their increase, 
constituted the family or tribe, and 
looked up to a common head. This 
happy state of life, tj'pical of heavenly 
order, began to perish when self-love 
arose, and with it a disposition to ap- 
propriate the property of others. The 
military spirit was then engendered, 
and families and tribes coalesced and 
consolidated for mutual defence or 
attack. The pure African has never 
liberated himself from this miserable 
political thraldom into which his an- 
te-diluvian ancestors fell. By con- 
tinued perversions and the ever-ac- 
cumulating pressure of hereditary 
impulse, his whole nature has become 
thoroughly servile on one hand and 
thoroughly despotic on the other. 
His fetichism, his conjuring and 
witchcraft, his serpent-worship, his 
dirt-eating, and his thousand pecul- 
iarities of manner and custom, 
declare his awful and thorough deg- 
radation. 



20 



The Spiritual Philosophy of 



Notice now in this connection, 
that, the African mind, properly 
speaking", has never had a political 
existence. Its sole political life has 
been found in the perversions and 
inversions of the patriarchal system. 
If it could this day be miraculously 
restored to its original stand-point, 
■whence it could work out its interior 
organic life, it would neither know 
nor learn anything of political rights, 
privileges or principles. That whole 
sphere of thought, so natural and 
delightful to other races, is entirely 
foreign to its nature. Negro at- 
tempts at political organization, out- 
side of the controlling or modifying 
sphere of the white race, must neces- 
sarily be failures and farces. When 
we refuse the Negro political equality, 
we deny him no right which he ever 
possessed, or could ever of himself 
obtain, and we withhold from him the 
Means of inflicting great injury upon 
himself and others. 

With the opening of the spiritual 
degree of the human mind, came the 
establishment of priesthoods and 
kingdoms and empires, with their 
complex theological and political 
forms and mysteries. There are 
similar forms of society now existing 
in the spiritual heavens. The divine 
right of kings and priests in the first 
part of this era was unquestionable, 
simply because the priests and kings 
acted and thought divinely. But all 
that was changed. Evil became pre- 
dominant in its two hateful forms — 
love of self and love of the world. 
Asia and Europe have been deluged 
with blood, over and over again, by 
the priests and kings struggling for 
power and ascendency. All the re- 
ligions of the earth have become cor- 
rupted and perverted, and all the 
governments have degenerated into 
instruments of oppression and tyr- 
anny. For every one of them, the 
condemnatory handwriting has ap- 
peared on the wall. They are break- 
ing up and dissolving, either by in- 
terior disintegration or by exterior 
violence ; and the field of the world 
is being made ready for the descent 
of the New Jerusalem. 



One of the greatest agencies in 
achieving this desirable result is the 
dogma of political equality. This 
doctrine has transferred to the peo- 
ple that divine right which had be- 
come the opprobrium of kings. That 
" all men are created free and equal," 
and that government should exist 
only by consent of the governed, are 
now the most popular and progressive 
doctrines in the world. AVhatever 
doubts may be suggested as to their 
philosophical truth, and whatever 
difficulties may oppose their practical 
operation, it is certain that they are 
destined to revolutionize modern 
society. They will be powerful at 
least in destroying and effacing the 
old order of things, and for that they 
will deserve the gratitude of the 
world. It is clear, however, to re- 
flecting minds that these doctrines 
have no reconstructive power, — and 
that they would ultimate a perfect 
anarchy, if we were not assured that 
new and true principles were de- 
scending from heaven, which will 
finally govern the social and all 
other spheres of human life. 

Now we aiErm, without fear of 
contradiction from any intelligent 
New Churchman, that African slavery 
is an institution which is to play an 
important part in the reconstruction 
of society upon true and heavenly 
principles. African slaver}' provides, 
as we have clearly shown, a channel 
for the descent of celestial influences 
into the world, such as have never 
before been known or experienced. 
Influx, we know, is quiet and im- 
perceptible, like the action of sun- 
light upon flowers, so that we could 
know nothing of its operations but for 
the revealed doctrines of the church. 
But influx from heaven through re- 
generating African slaves, as proper 
mediums, is at this moment the in- 
terior force which is co-operating 
with the dogma of political equality 
in the external sphere for the recon- 
struction of society and the regener- 
ation of mankind. We may separate ; 
we may fight ; but the North and 
the South are interiorly and indisso- 
lubly united. The North is furnish- 



African Slavery. 



21 



ing- the true external basis into whicli 
the interior life of the South is to 
flow for the salvation of the race. 
Oh, New Churchmen ! how can ye 
fail to see the sublime and glorious 
truth ? The North and South should 
be related to each other like man and 
woman, like faith and charity, like 
external and internal. Who has 
sown the seeds of discord in our 
midst ? That old dragon, that hell 
within the church, which preaches 
faith alone and aspires to spiritual 
dominion over the souls of men. He 
musters strongly for his last battle. 
The first beneficent effect of the 
institution of African slavery toward 
the regeneration of the Negro, is that 
it ivithholds him from evils. The first 
step toward the regeneration of the 
white man, in whom the rational-sci- 
entific plane is developed, and whose 
mind can therefore be elevated into 
heavenly light, is to abstain from evils. 
The Negro can not abstain, because he 
is not receptive of spiritual truth, 
being in bondage to sensual-corporeal 
cupidities and phantasies. He must 
therefore be loithheld like a child, and 
in this respect the white race is com- 
missioned to hold provisionally a 
parental relation toward him. The 
master must prevent intemperance 
in eating and drinking ; he must pro- 
hibit polygamy and curb licentious- 
ness ; he must punish lying and theft ; 
he must guard against quarreling 
and fighting, and withhold each from 
encroaching upon the rights of others. 
Punislmicnt may be requisite to ef- 
fect all this good, and to that precise 
degree it is righteous and proper. 
Tho^ who can not be actuated by 
love or persuaded by reason must be 
controlled by fear. This principle 
rules in our government of our own 
children and in our own police reg- 
ulations, and it is the principle upon 
which our Lord through ministering 
angels reduces the hells to order, and 
contributes to the comfort and peace 
of their inhabitants. It is unques- 
tionably true that even severe cor- 
poreal punishment, administered in a 
spirit of justice and for good ends, is 



serviceable in dissipating the thick 
sphere of cupidities and phantasies 
which surrounds and spiritually suf- 
focates the undisciplined barbarian. 

The next step for the African's good 
(we need not here consider the mo- 
tives of the master) is to compel him 
to do uses. The hereditary devil 
which has possessed him for centuries 
has imposed on his constitution an 
almost ineradicable torpor. Sweden- 
borg, in several places, speaks of the 
sphere of the ante-diluvians as dread- 
fully oppressive and paralyzing, — 
taking away from its subjects almost 
all faculty of thought and action. 
It is this sphere which we have to 
dissipate from the barbarous African, 
and nothing but the strong power of 
slavery, compelling him to do uses, 
can effect it. Swedenborg tells of 
wicked spirits who are confined to 
hard labor for their food and clothes 
until they see and acknowledge 
their falsities and evils. Paupers 
and vagrants are compelled to labor 
in all civilized countries. Experience 
proves that when the African is thus 
withheld from evil and compelled to 
do uses, his voluntary jDrinciple is de- 
veloped, a new nature flows out, and 
he is the most teachable, willing, 
good-natured, light-hearted, affection- 
ate, and happy creature in the world. 

We hold it to be self-evident, that 
God has created every man with a 
specific genius and given him definite 
faculties for its ultimation. It is not 
only his right, but his duty to exercise 
these faculties, for rights and duties 
go always together. No man can 
lawfully push another from his ap- 
pointed place, and it should be the 
aim of government to secure to each 
and all the proper sphere for the 
natural and perfect development of 
character. Eights should be respect- 
ed and their corresponding duties 
enforced. The end in view in the 
institution of slavery is the prepara- 
tion of a natural basis for the out- 
flowing of a beautiful celestial nature. 
Whatever is necessary for this, the 
African has a right to claim and the 
white man is bound to give. If social 



22 



The Spiritual Philosophy of 



equality, competitive labor, political 
privilc^jes, pliilosophical culture will 
bring- the celestial " remains"' to light 
out of the primitive darkness of the 
barbarian's soul, let him have them ! 
The North believes this, and charges 
the South with barbarism and des- 
potism for not coinciding in the 
opinion. We think very differently, 
and the New Churchman who knows 
tvhat the celestial is, can not long be 
deceived by the sophistries which 
have been arrayed against us. 

The celestial is best developed in 
the family sphere, and in the exercise 
of domestic and agricultural uses. 
The house represents celestial good, 
while the street, typical of com- 
mercial and political life, refers only 
truths. The town or city corresponds 
to the sjjiritual, while the country 
corresponds to the celestial. It is the 
pre-eminent mark of the celestial to 
be willing to serve. To serve, there- 
fore, in domestic and agricultural 
life is characteristic of the celestial 
genius. The celestial genius needs 
no books, no political organizations, 
no philosophizing for its evolution. 
It needs an orderly external, in which 
the inferior is subordinated to the 
superior ; — it needs an atmosphere of 
cheerful duty and use, of simple 
tastes, of sympathy and fidelity, of 
reverence and gentleness, of justice 
and mercy and love. In a well-reg- 
ulated, cultivated Christian family, 
the southern slave is bountifully sup- 
plied with the means of calling forth 
his peculiar and remarkable genius. 

How long the institution is to last, 
what modifications it is to receive, 
and how it is to disappear i]i the final 
and perfect order of things, we can not 
clearly foresee. Providence has per- 
mitted it, so far, for the good of all 
parties, and has even made use of 
our very evils for its benefit. Selfish- 
ness brought the Negro from Africa ; 
selfishness reduced him to order and 
made him capable of uses ; selfish- 
ness feeds and clothes and i)rotccts 
him. If the Negro could not have been 
made subservient to our interests, 
we should long ago have turned him 



adrift, driven him before us and ex- 
terminated him, as we have done the 
Indian. Such would le the issue of 
abolition. This is melancholy', but 
it is true. What we need now, is 
not new conduct, but new motives. 
The natural man leads an orderlj^, 
useful life, from the hope of gain or 
power or reputation. The spiritual 
man leads the very same life, from 
love to the Lord and the neighbor. 
Spiritualize the motives of the slave- 
holder and he becomes a regenerate 
man, who, while prudently caring 
fin- his own interests and for those 
about him, is rendering incalculable 
service to the church and the world. 

In view of the organic constitution 
of the Negro — of the facts and neces- 
sities of the case, of the inexorable 
march of history and progress, ac- 
cording to universal laws of Divine 
Providence not yet fully discovered, 
and of the glorious ends to be attain- 
ed, — is slavoholding a sin ? How 
can a New Churchman of enlarged 
views entertain the thought for a 
moment ! 

There is no need to recount the 
Biblical argument for and against 
slavery. One party contends, and 
with great force, that the Bible rec- 
ognizes its existence as one great 
means and agency of human develop- 
ment ; and if it does not plainly 
sanction it, at least nowhere con- 
demns it. The other side aflSrms that 
the spiritual principles of the Chris- 
tain religion demand its overthrow. 
We, who interpret the word spirit- 
ually, ought to attain a high theo- 
logical and philosophical stand-point, 
whence to discover the genuine tfuth, 
apart from all appearances of the let- 
ter or ratiocination of the understand- 
ing. _ 

It is said upon abstract grounds 
that there can be no such thing as 
the right of property in man. That 
one man can own another in the 
same sense as that in which he owns 
a thing, is of course a wicked absurd- 
ity. Slaves are not chattels, but 
" chattels personal," that is, property 
possessed of human rights, of which 



African Slavery. 



23 



uotliiug' can divest it. These rights 
are food, clothing-, discipline, relig- 
ious instruction, regulated labor, pro- 
tection, sjunpathy, etc. We have no 
property either in the souls or bodies 
of our slaves. We simply have a 
right to their labor and obedience, in 
consideration of the immense benefits 
we confer upon them. We have sim- 
ply a right to hold them to an ap- 
prenticeship for life, both for their 
own and the public good. The ap- 
prenticeship is for life, and not for a 
term of years, because they are or- 
ganically children or minors, and 
can never take such care of them- 
selves as we can take of them. 
Spiritually speaking, man has no 
property. Our proprium, or that 
which is truly our own, is wholly 
evil and false. What we possess is 
given by the Lord, and it is given 
only for use. If the Lord has seen fit 
to adjoin the sensual-corporeal sphere 
of the African, as a servant to ours, 
. in order that we may infuse a new 
and true life into it, and if we dis- 
charge our stewardship faithfully and 
well, it matters not by what names, 
opprobrious or otherwise, men may 
designate the relationship which ex- 
ists between the two races. 

But, says the abstractionist, you 
violate the golden rule, "Do unto 
others as jon would that they should 
do unto you." This beautiful precept 
of charity has been grossly misunder- 
stood and perverted to party pur- 
poses. Its true meaning evidently 
is, that we should be in the continual 
desire of doing good to all men, and 
should treat others as it ivould be ivise 
and just for us to he treated if ice were 
in their i^laces. It has been tortured 
to signify, that we should grant every 
man his wishes, provided we imagine 
that we would wish the same on a 
change of conditions. The judge, 
then, must pardon the murderer ; 
the magistrate must release the 
vagrant ; the creditor must absolve 
his debtor ; the rich must give all to 
\ the poor ; the employer must change 
\ places with the employed ! Upon 
this principle, which would destroy 



all order and all society, it is de- 
manded that the master shall liberate 
his slave. Now, in the light of hea- 
ven, the African ought to wish to go 
through the disciplinary ordeal he is 
now experiencing for his own good 
and the good of others ; and we 
ought to endeavor, by salutary meas- 
ures suggested by Our superior wis- 
dom, to cultivate his spiritual facul- 
ties, until, as to goodness and truth, 
he attains our own stand-point. Such 
is the true law of charity as applied 
to the Negro, and there is nothing in 
the institution of slavery to retard, 
but very many things to foster its 
operation. We speak from much ob- 
servation and living experience. 

When we descend from universals 
to particulars, or from the general to 
the special, slaveholding is siniul or 
otherwise, according to the animus 
or spirit with which it is practised. 
If the master gives his servant as 
little as possible, stints him of food 
and clothing, works him hardly, 
treats him with indifference or sever- 
ity, and cares little or nothing for 
him except as a valuable beast of 
burden, he commits the odious sin of 
the capitalist [ov emploj^er, who re- 
duces the wages of labor to the lowest 
possible standard, and pursues his 
business with the utmost selfishness 
and unchristian disregard of the 
rights, feelings, and happiness of 
others. If the master imposes un- 
reasonable tasks, exacts improper 
services, inflicts undue punishments, 
or violates any principle of charity 
and justice toward his slave, he 
commits grievous sins, which are by 
no means limited to slaveholding 
countries. If he is imperious and im- 
placable, domineering and tyrannic- 
al, miserly and cruel, — as many men 
are, independently of local institu- 
tions, — his whole moral nature ,i§ 
tainted, and he is sinful in all the re- 
lations of life. Such men have domi- 
neered over wives and children and 
dependents in all ages and countries. 
Slavery did not bring them into ex- 
istence. 

If the slaveholder assumes his re- 



24 



The Spiritual Philosophy of African Slavery. 



sponsibilities witli a solemn sense of 
their sacred character ; if he regards 
bis slave with kindness and for- 
bearance and sympatliy ; if he pro- 
vides, to the best of his ability and 
belief, for his physical comfort and 
his moral and religious instruction ; 
if he administers discipline with jus- 
tice, and tempers justice with mercy ; 
if he protects and guides and regu- 
lates with a generous hand and a 
loving heart, in infancy and sickness 
and old age ; not only is his slave- 



holding not a sin, but it is a blessing 
to all around him, and comes back to 
himself, as all blessings finally do, 
in the cultivation of his religious life 
and the development of his spiritual 
nature. The unfoldings of the spirit- 
ual world may possibly reveal the 
fact, that this Christian slaveholder, 
misunderstood and reviled as he now 
is by his brethren in other countries, 
had attained the sublimest point of 
human civilization. 



f^w^dcttfcovrj's iheak 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




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